It is a known technique to connect an information processing apparatus, such as a PC (personal computer), to a Web server on a network and display an operation screen provided by the Web server on a Web browser included in the image processing apparatus.
In such a case, the Web browser of the image processing apparatus requests an operation screen from the Web server, in response to which a Web application in the Web server sends an HTML (Hyper Text Markup Language) file for displaying the operation screen on the Web browser to the image processing apparatus. The Web browser of the image processing apparatus analyzes the HTML file received, and displays an operation screen based on description in the HTML file.
Further, when a user inputs an instruction via the operation screen displayed on the Web browser, the instruction is passed to the Web server from the Web browser. Upon receiving the instruction, the Web application of the Web server executes processing according to the instruction.
Today, some image processing apparatuses such as MFPs (Multi Function Peripherals) having a scanner and/or a printer also include a Web browser as mentioned above. Such an image processing apparatus displays an operation screen provided by a Web server on the Web browser using the above-described process to accept various instructions from users.
Still further, such a technique as one disclosed by Japanese Patent Application Laid-Open No. 2005-242994 is also proposed. According to descriptions of Japanese Patent Application Laid-Open No. 2005-242994, a Web server provides an operation screen for entering instructions for utilizing various features (services) of an image processing apparatus. That is, the user of the image processing apparatus accordingly enters an instruction to the image processing apparatus via the operation screen displayed on a Web browser. The instruction is then passed to the Web server by the Web browser of the image processing apparatus.
Upon receiving the instruction, the Web server requests the image processing apparatus to carry out any of various types of processing according to the contents of the instruction input by the user. The image processing apparatus having received this request then executes the requested processing (or provides a service). This eliminates the necessity to maintain all menu data required for operating the image processing apparatus within the image processing apparatus and also facilitates modifications to the menu data on the Web server.
When a Web server provides an operation screen for the user of an image processing apparatus to enter instructions and the Web server requests the image processing apparatus to perform processing, it is necessary to fixedly register information about services provided by the image processing apparatus with the Web server in advance.
However, an image processing apparatus generally provides a number of services, and besides, the ability and/or version of the services dynamically change with update to the services or additional installation of optional functions. Also, there can be a number of options for utilizing the services, such as a protocol and connection address information which is used for utilizing the services. These factors make it difficult to fixedly register information about service provided by an image processing apparatus with a Web server in advance.
To address this problem, Japanese Patent Application Laid-Open No. 2005-242994 discloses a technique to notify a Web server of a URL (Uniform Resource Locator), which is one of pieces of information relating to services provided by an image processing apparatus, (or service connection information) by the image processing apparatus.
However, the technique of Japanese Patent Application Laid-Open No. 2005-242994 merely supplies information about services provided by the image processing on demand from the Web server and does not switch between notification and non-notification or change the contents of information to be supplied depending on the timing of notification and/or notified entity. Therefore, depending on the timing of notification and/or notified entity, information will be supplied even when supply of the information is unnecessary in itself.
That is to say, when information on all services is supplied on every notification regardless of timing of notification and/or a notified entity, for example, the amount of data exchanged between the image processing apparatus and the Web server will increase. In addition, continuous supply of service-related information without regard to notified entity may cause leakage of sensitive information to outsiders.
The present invention has been made in view of these problems, and an object thereof is to provide a mechanism for determining, depending on which entity a Web browser accesses, whether to supply information about an image processing apparatus to the accessed entity or not before supplying the information.
Another object of the invention is to provide a mechanism to select information to be supplied to an entity which the Web browser accesses among pieces of information relating to each of multiple processing units and supplying the selected information.